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Lola James: Mom's boyfriend accused of killing 2-year-old claims pet dog pushed her down the stairs

Lola James died from a severe brain injury after Kyle Bevan, 31, reportedly attacked her at her Pembrokeshire home
UPDATED MAR 9, 2023
Lola James was allegedly killed by her mom's boyfriend in a 'frenzied' attack (Dyfed-Powys Police)
Lola James was allegedly killed by her mom's boyfriend in a 'frenzied' attack (Dyfed-Powys Police)

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HAVERFORDWEST, PEMBROKESHIRE: A two-year-old girl was found with 101injuries after she was allegedly murdered by her mother's boyfriend who claimed that the family dog had pushed her down the stairs, a trial has heard on Wednesday, March 8. Lola James died from a severe brain injury after Kyle Bevan, 31, reportedly attacked her at her Pembrokeshire home. Despite his "nasty and violent temper" James' mother had allowed Bevan to move in only four months before the "frenzied and extremely violent attack."

The young girl's mother Sinead James, 30, is accused of allowing the death of the child. However, she claimed to be asleep when James suffered a series of injuries and insisted that Bevan has no reason to harm her daughter. Swansea Crown Court heard that James had suffered 101 injuries including "bruising all over her little body and grazing of the skin," from the medics at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. She also experienced extensive damage to every part of both retinas along with brain injury. James was aged just two years and nine months when she died four days after hospitalization. 

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Dog was blamed 'for pushing Lola downstairs'

Prosecutor Caroline Rees KC told the court that Bevan carried out internet searches for information about "babies sustaining head impact and loss of consciousness" at 6.32 am on the morning of the alleged attack on July 17, 2020. Moreover, he took photos and a video of James' head injuries. The 31-year-old waited nearly one hour before telling his mother Alison Bevan to call an ambulance at 7.28 am at the family home in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.

"The prosecutors said that Kyle Bevan needed that hour to concoct lies to protect himself and to come up with an excuse for how this little child had gone from being alive and well to being in such a perilous state whilst she was alone with him. He needed the time to cover his tracks. When paramedics arrived they found that Lola had been dressed but was wet and that Lola was seriously ill. She was unconscious, though still breathing and her head and face were swollen. Bruises were noted on Lola's forehead. Kyle Bevan continued to try and explain things away by blaming the family dog for pushing Lola downstairs. The prosecution said that was a deliberate lie to cover up his guilt," Rees told the court during the trial, as per the Daily Mail

On the other hand, James’s mother had known about her boyfriend’s "nasty and violent temper" but chose to "prioritize her relationship with him over her own daughter's physical safety." Rees said: "We say that although Kyle Bevan was not Lola's father biologically, she should have been able to trust him as an adult in her home not to cause her any harm. We say that he seriously abused that trust. We say also that Lola should have been able to rely on her own mother to keep her safe from harm and physical risk. Sinead James, the prosecution say, seriously failed in her duty towards her young child." 

Kyle Bevan recorded Lola James after the 'frenzied attack'

Backtracking to when the medics were called, Bevan "immediately tried to save himself" instead of helping the little girl to get medical attention, the court has heard. He, in fact, filmed himself trying to prop up a two-year-old girl after carrying out a "frenzied attack" on her. Bevan sent the "disturbing 22-second film" to his mother Alison who urged him to call the medics. The footage was recorded 26 minutes after Bevan had carried out a series of internet searches, one of which read: "My two year old child has just taken a bang to the head and gone all limp and snoring. What's wrong."

The prosecutor added that James could be heard making a "snoring sound" in the clip shown to the jury. "Again the prosecution ask the question that if this really was an accident why was Kyle Bevan spending time staging a recording like this rather than doing everything he could to contact the emergency services," she said. Photos from the crime scene showed a "clean and shiny bath" while the rest of the house was filled with clutter and toys. "Despite the fact the house was generally dirty and untidy, the bath appeared to be spotless as though it had recently been cleaned. Also recovered in the course of the search was a child's wet and vomit and blood stained grey onesie which was found in the corner of the living room. The prosecution said that the combination of these features show that Kyle Bevan was desperately trying to cover his tracks even as far as cleaning the bath that we say he put Lola in, perhaps to revive her after his attack or to clean her of blood and vomit. Curtains and a sheet were recovered from the washing machine," Rees said of the evidence, as per the outlet. 

Kyle Bevan and Sinead James deny murder

Bevan has claimed that James had two falls - the first fall was when she fell from a bunk bed ladder in her room at night and the second in the morning when the dog pushed her down the stairs. James' mother Sinead said that she did hear a bang at midnight and found Bevan comforting her daughter in her bedroom. "He told her Lola had hit her head. It is Sinead James' case that she went back to sleep until she was woken by Kyle Bevan telling her Lola had fallen downstairs," Rees said. Both Bevan and Sinead have denied charges of murder and causing or allowing the death of a child, respectively. The trial, due to last four weeks, continues.

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